Posts Tagged ‘Avlayin’

Kochav Segal HaLevi, a Jewish security guard, legally bought a house in the mixed Muslim-Christian Arab village of Ibillin in northern Israel, east of Haifa. Upon moving in, however, he discovered that the locals are unwilling to let Jews live there.

It is a well known fact in Israel that Jews who try to live in Arab villages risk their lives, while Arabs live freely in Jewish neighborhoods. While leftist journalists and politicians, inside Israel and out, portray Israeli Jews as racist for fighting Arab invasions of their cities, stories like this one – which show Arabs’ zero tolerance for Jews in their neighborhoods – appear almost exclusively on Arutz Sheva.

A legal purchase

“It was in late September,” HaLevi told Arutz Sheva‘s Hebrew-language news service. “I bought an apartment legally from a Christian Arab seller whose wife is Jewish, in the Christian part of Ibillin, near Shefaram. He sold the home because of debts to the bank, so the price was relatively low and I purchased the house.”

“I moved my belongings in and received the key. Before I moved in I spoke with the neighbors and asked them if they had any objection to my coming to live there. They said no there was problem and ‘ahlan wasahlan’ (welcome). If you do not make trouble there is no problem with you living here.’”

“I was not motivated by a racist or provocative approach, but from a belief that we are ‘a free nation in our land,’” HaLevi said, quoting a line from HaTikvah, the national anthem.

“I am against racism of any kind,” he said, and said he intended to take the matter to court and would welcome any assistance he could get.

Scholars identify Ibillin with a Jewish village from Talmudic times called Avlayim.